Tummy Stuffers - A great gift for a 2 year old (sponsored post)

My two year old loves to fill things and dump them out and fill them again... and dump them again... It seems to be a common stage that many two year olds experience.  As Azariah approached his second birthday, we were presented with the opportunity to check out Tummy Stuffers.  I have to admit, I thought they were kind of silly at first.  I also knew that my boys would love them.

Guess what: Azariah (and the other boys) love this alligator! In fact, it was one of the few toys I packed to keep my boys entertained during a youth convention while I worked as a vendor.  This little guy held all of their toys and scrunched up to fit inside their special toy trunk!

The boy's play trunk, ready to go to youth convention.

He gobbled up toys and spit them back out.  He chased little boys around to gobble them up.  He even worked as a hat!

Azariah, wearing the Tummy Stuffer as a hat!

Our alligator was out last week when Azariah's therapist was over to work on speech.  She adored him and used him with Azariah to prompt some words!  I never thought that our Tummy Stuffer would also work for therapy, how excellent!

Whit considers fleeing the scene

While our kitten is not so much a fan of the Tummy Stuffer, I think it's a fantastic gift option for toddlers and preschoolers!  Christmas is coming, who is on your list?  I'm positive that my 3 and 5 year olds would love to have Tummy Stuffers of their own (in fact, they've already told me which ones they wish for)!  Tummy Stuffers sell for $19.99 plus shipping and handling.  13" seat pets come with a free 8" buddy (for a limited time)
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Imperfect Organization: Circle Time

 

Meet our learning robot!  This super cool poster was a steal at Christmas time for $1.59!  I bought it at Darlington Holiday Outlet in Fort Wayne.  

The Learning Robot has really simplified and helped me organize circle time in our home with my preschoolers.  Now we can easily sit on the floor in the dining room and go over the skills it presents to my boys!  

This tool offers letters, beginning sounds, shapes, colors, reading a clock, months, days of the week, and numbers 1-30!  The boys love it.  They have so much fun checking it out.  It is a fun game when someone tells them what letter or picture to look for.  It's even more fun when the boys get to be the teacher.  They don't even realize they're still learning to identify these items!

Behind the learning robot is our thankful tree.  Each leaf has something that we are thankful about written on it.  It also has apples and flowers with numbers on them that we use at different times for practicing counting and number identification.

How do you organize daily learning time with your family?

Imperfect Organization: Morning Routine

This mama does not like mornings.  If I had my way I would sleep until 9 or 10 every day and stay up until 1 or 2 every morning.  Unfortunately, my boys like morning.  They wake up ready to go, I stumble around trying to figure out what I need to get done.  The boy's schedule had been fairly relaxed and unstructured.  BUT - we want to homeschool.  Manasseh is 4.5 and we are starting some kindergarten skills with him.  Structure is important.  Organization is key.

To help the boys know what needs to get done every morning, and to help me as I bumble through the cloudiness that some people call morning - I created a wall chart.  It made a difference for all of us immediately!  Cassius has since removed the chart from the wall multiple times, but the boys have it memorized and we revert to it as often as necessary to get our day going.  This simple, 6 step visual routine has helped us get organized.

How do you help your kids get ready to start their days?

Imperfect Organization: Children's Dressers

I have 3 boys, 2 cats, and a fish.  I am so glad that the cats and fish don't wear clothes because I can hardly believe how many clothes 3 little boys can go through.  Manasseh seems to think he needs to wear 2 outfits a day (before and after nap) and a pair of pajamas at night (which he takes off before he goes to sleep).  We have cloth diapers, wet underpants, blankets... laundry, laundry, laundry!  Some days I feel like I just can't keep up with their dirty clothes.

A few weeks ago, while folding laundry and watching them play, I got brilliant.  See, I hate folding laundry.  It might be my least favorite household task.  I also have some high dislike of putting folded laundry away.  I looked at my capable preschoolers and decided that they are able to put their own laundry away.  Unfortunately, putting their own laundry away means that some of it gets unfolded while it gets dropped into the dresser.  I have to decide not to control their dresses.

*BING* That's organization point #1!  My kids can put their laundry away - that takes away one organizing task for me each day.

The next solution came later that day when Cassius (then 2) was trying to get dressed - because if they can put their clothes into the dresser, they can take them back out.  He was confused about which dresser was his and which drawer had shirts/pants/underwear.  He was overwhelmed by the long stack with 12 drawers. 

I fixed it. 



Now each dresser is color coded - Green for Manasseh, Red for Cassius, and Blue for Azariah.  The clothing pictures follow the color scheme and the words on the drawer are also printed in their favorite colors.

*BING* #2 - The boy's dressers are labeled and color coded.  Cassius now can confidently go to HIS own dresser and get out whatever article of clothing he is instructed to get (this also helps with putting clothes away).  

We have increased independence and responsibility by making these 2 incredibly simple changes to the boy's bedroom.

How do you organize your child's personal space to allow for more independence and responsibility?  

It started with leaves

I have boys.

They act like... boys.

My boys love to examine nature.  They especially love leaves, rocks, sticks and pine cones.  In fact, everywhere we go they are searching for these special treasures. I love this about my boys.  I want to find ways to encourage this curiosity as they grow.  But this brings us to problem #1.

Problem #1

 Our van floor is covered with broken down leaves and pine cones.  The boys bring them into the house and examine each bit as they crunch them into tiny bits on the floor.  I found a rock in the baby's car seat last week - under him.  I KNOW he did not pick it up, I think it was a gift from one of his doting brothers.

The floor in front of Cracker's seat

I love my boys.  They love to get comfortable as soon as they walk into the house.  Some days I have to walk over one or the other just to get inside, because he is taking off shoes or tugging a jacket off.  Unfortunately, at 23 months old and 3 years old, they are not so fond of putting things away all of the time.  Sometimes we're lucky and I get all 4 shoes where I ask them to put them.  Generally they end up in a bedroom or the bathroom or somewhere in the middle of the floor.  

Problem #2

Things get cluttered and messy.  It is hard to find the right shoe or jacket.  Getting ready to leave the house takes MUCH longer than it should because we are looking for assorted missing items.  It makes me crazy.  I like to be on time.  I also like a clean house.  

Solution

I was really annoyed when I found a rock in the baby's car seat.  It's not a BIG deal, just more mess and clutter.  I happened to be sitting near an unused McDonalds bucket and plunked the rock into it.  I thought, "gee, I should get them each a bucket to use for their nature".  That's how it started.  Then, I realized if I put the buckets on a shelf, behind the front door.  We could collect nature, hats, coats, and shoes as they make it into our house.  

I searched our house for a shelf that was the right size and only found 1 that was narrow enough to fit in this space.  It does not look beautiful, eventually we will make a nicer shelf.  The wall isn't finished yet - but look, organized, functional - now I just have to convince my boys to use it.